Fabian Cancellara, Switzerland’s reigning world champion, powered to his maiden Olympic time trial crown to grab his second medal of the Games’ cycling events on Wednesday.

Gustav Larsson of Sweden, Cancellara’s teammate at the professional CSC outfit, finished second at 33.36sec to take the silver with American Levi Leipheimer winning the bronze at 1:10 off the winning pace.

Cancellara, 27, has won the world title – and a number of other big wins – in the race against the clock the past two years and was the big favourite in spite of the hilly profile of the 47.3km course. He trailed Larsson by six seconds going into the final 13km, but the Swiss pushed his bike into overdrive to come over the finish line waving his arms in triumph in 1hr 02min 11sec.

It was Switzerland’s second cycling medal of the day following Karin Thürig’s bronze in the women’s time trial, and Cancellara’s second of the Games after his bronze in the road race.